Posts Made By: Dave budlong

not sure but my first guess is that you secondary is out of line. Maybe not but I would guess that from here.

http://www.atmob.org/Articles/skymaps_jsmall.html this is another page I like, am hoping that you guys out there will throw out a few more that you really like.

Not to worry in most cases you should have no problems with fracturing due to separate pourings. Most driveways and foundations are done in multiple pours. Ideally one truck would show up just as the last one empties, in practice that only happens about half the time. I have been in on some driveway pours where it took the next truck 45 minutes of downtime to show up and you couldn't tell the difference 3 days later.

I started astronomy just like I start everything else, with no plan, no idea, and no understanding. It all started when I found a set of keys in a common area of the development that I was living in at the time, I had no idea who they belonged to. Me being myself I took the keys door to door throughout the neighborhood looking for an owner, in my wanderings I met an older gentleman who opened the door, as I asked about the keys I noticed that he had 3 different telescopes in the living room. 2 of them were refractors and the other one was a Meade SCT, now I had never even seen a telescope that looked like the SCT before so I was sure this guy had to be at least some sort of semi-pro astronomer just to have access to a scope that looked that much different than a "normal" telescope. I did not say anything to him at the time as there was still the owner of the keys to find. I left his place and continued on my quest, after managing to find the owner I returned home and talked to my wife about this odd gentleman and his telescopes, I finally convinced her that if I went over there we might find out how to get a decent telescope for ourselves with some coaching from the old guy. We both had an interest in astronomy and this might just be the avenue to get us headed in the right direction. So I went back to the old guys house, I told him that I was interested in getting a scope and asked him if he had any pointers. He looked at me like my head was on fire then proceeded to give me a Orion catalog and told me to read it and think about one of their smaller refractors. He then showed me the door and thought to himself that would be the last of me. Needless to say my wife and I mulled it over got a nice 60 mm refractor and we were off.
There were several things that came about as a result of those errant keys. First we got to get into Astronomy with a decent first scope.
Second after we got the scope I went back to the old guys house and thanked him. Well the gentleman in question wanted to see the new scope and so I brought him back to my place. My wife and I grew to be great friends with him, Bill was his name. Bill not only helped us find the right scope, but then offered up some targets that were within the scopes range. In time he helped us learn about birdwatching, gardening, photography, we attended Star Parties and astronomy club meetings together and he became our finest family friend.
So I got into astronomy by being a Boy Scout, and I made one of the best friends of my life. Bill passed away last year as a result of cancer, but I will always remember the day I met him and started down the road in this hobby.

Well done, now to add a couple ounces of black paint to the inside of the box. Side note, the desk in the background seems to have lost some weight too!

Its more a matter of " do you think they are worth it to you?" I do not now or have I ever owned a Panoptic, Radian or Nagler EP. Not that I wouldn't like to, just that I place many things above them on my priority list. I know that they would help in observing, but there are about 20 or so other things I would rather spend my Astro budget on. Were I to suddenly find that I was the lost nephew of Bill Gates and had money to burn, then of course I would purchase a few of them. For me its just a matter of getting the most for my astro buck.

Orion's catalog does a decent job of explaining the different types of scopes as well. They used to be a little better, but even now I think they give you a very basic understanding.

I put mine on the far side of the finder scope from the focuser. It works just fine for me.

Simple quick answer, BOTH!! You can never go wrong with owning 2 or 3 scopes.

3 quick questions,

1. What kind of scope is it?

2. How safe is your neighborhood? (theft and vandalism)

3. How sure of yourself are you when it comes to building structures?

I only ask, because these are the first considerations to meeting your criteria for me to make adequate suggestions.